


What Dreams May Come

by nocturneequuis



Series: Little Pieces of Heaven [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen, One Piece Miscellany, ficlets galore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-04
Updated: 2012-11-04
Packaged: 2017-11-18 00:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/554712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocturneequuis/pseuds/nocturneequuis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first in a collection of drabbles, ficlets, one shots, and anything else that is too short to have its own entry. Mostly gen at the moment, though later will likely include some ships here and there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Dreams May Come

**What Dreams May Come**

 

He is dreaming. This is not unusual. He often dreams, usually of color and noise and laughter-the rush of wind in his hair and adventure in his heart. Sometimes he can see his nakama, sometimes he can't. Other dreams are dark and heavy, filled with a choking presence. He never sees his nakama in these, but he knows they're there (if only beyond the smoky edges of his consciousness) so he doesn't worry.

This dream is different from the others. He is surrounded by blue. Below him he can see old coral beds and lazy fish. The sunlight shines through the water in loops and whorls, curving across coral and fish alike. Above him the water sparkles with sunlight and he is in between but he is not drowning. His legs remember, somehow what to do and he kicks forward, rowing with his arms in a smooth ocean, swimming as sleek as a dolphin. The water pushes in his face and tangles in his hair, as loving as the wind but not as rough. He starts turning as he swims, like an otter, he thinks, twisting and looping and chasing fish with cupped hands. He can't breathe but he doesn't need to and this is what reminds him is a dream. Rather, memory...

His body can't do this now. It's forgotten how, he thinks, or the belly of the sea has forgotten him. He can flail and twist and stretch but the sea still drags him down, angry, possessive, punching into his gut so that he can't breathe. It's sad. Like an old friend who becomes mad at you for no reason you can remember.

He holds on to the dream as long as he can, exploring and diving deeper into the blue-black-hungry for something that even Sanji can't prepare.

"Oi, Luffy..." Usopp says. Luffy looks up and sees he is actually a puffer fish, all spikes with Usopp's head and long nose. He laughs because it's hilarious, clutching his belly and rolling over in the water. Can he make his body blow up like that? Puffer-Usopp looks annoyed and starts rolling him back and forth with his fins. "Luffy," he says again. "Wake up."

Just like that he's tricked. Luffy blinks in the darkness. He hears the creaking of the ship and the sound of Zoro snoring nearby. Usopp is still there, unfished. Luffy can't see well enough in the dark to tell whether or not this annoys him.

"It's your turn on watch," Usopp says. Luffy yawns and sits up, stretching his arms over his head. Then looks at Usopp who is watching him. Luffy thinks he can see a question in the line of Usopp's shoulders but Usopp never asks and starts to turn away.

"Na, Usopp. Can you swim?" he asks.

"Yeah," Usopp says, sounding uncertain; then with more confidence: "I once swam two hundred miles in a day!"

" _Woah_ , two hundred miles?" Luffy says, leaning forward. He can't even imagine swimming that distance. He has no doubts Usopp could do something like that, though. Probably in being chased by something.

"Yep!" Usopp puts his fists on his hips proudly. "That was the day I saved my village from fifty huge mutant crabs!"

"Really?" Chopper asks, voice quiet and sleep-filled like grass whispering in the wind.

"No," Zoro says, but whether he's asleep or awake, Luffy can't tell. He's funny like that.

"Well, really there were only forty," Usopp says.

"Stop lying so loudly," Sanji mutters. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

Luffy grins to himself because he can hear their voices, because they are familiar to him, more familiar than the sea has ever been. Usopp mutters a protest that sounds weak because Luffy knows that in his mind, Usopp never really lies. Luffy slips off of his hammock and climbs out of the cabin and then shoots himself up to the crow's nest, the wind pummeling his face like it always does out of fierce joy.

Then he lands, the wood cold under his bare feet. He wiggles his toes and sees the ocean stretch around them on all sides, glinting with starlight and a soft shiver of moon. The sea doesn't like him anymore, but that's alright. Luffy rests his chin on his fists, listening to the creaking of the ship. As his nakama sleep, Luffy looks to the horizon and dreams...


End file.
